A conventional particle beam microscope comprises a particle beam source for generating a primary particle beam, and an electron detector. Examples of such particle beam microscopes include an electron microscope having an electron beam source and an ion microscope having an ion beam source. An electron microscope may have a X-ray detector for detecting X-rays generated by the primary particle beam incident on the sample. The X-rays may include characteristic X-rays indicative of chemical elements contained in the sample such that an elemental composition of the sample can be determined from an analysis of detection signals generated by the X-ray detector, wherein the analysis may include an analysis of an energy of detected X-rays. Such method is known as energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
It is desirable to improve inspection methods and inspection systems using a combination of an electron detection and an X-ray detection.